Coatings, backcoatings and finishes are applied to pile type woven fabrics such as corduroy, tufted upholstery, etc., for a variety of reasons, in particular to stabilize the fibers during processing as well as to produce a fabric of improved hand, integrity, pile retention, durability and abrasion resistance to the face of the fabric. In most cases, it is important that the coating be durable under laundering conditions encountered utilizing water or dry cleaning procedures. In particular, these woven-pile fabrics have an extra set of warp or filling yarns interlaced with the basic fabric in such a manner that loops or cut ends are produced on the surface of the fabric. If the resultant loosely bound fibers are not backcoated with an adhesive or binder, the pile will not remain in the fabric during subsequent processing and certainly not after any subsequent laundering.
The introduction of N-methylol containing comonomers into the latex polymers used as binders in these backcoatings has been proposed in order to improve their laundering durability properties. N-methylol containing acrylic latices have generally been used as binders where softness is the most important criteria, to give a good balance of softness and strength, especially in the areas of pluck strength, seam slippage, pile retention and abrasion resistance, however these acrylic binders are relatively high in cost. More economical polymers such as ethylene/vinyl acetate-based binders containing N-methylol comonomers such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,851 issued Apr. 30, 1968 to M. K. Lindemann et al., yield the necessary strength properties but are deficient in the areas of softness and drape.